One Of The Main Ingredients Of Success

One of the main ingredients of success is to keep an open mind that can receive valuable input from other people. This requires humility of character which makes a person rise above his ego.

The ability to respect and explore the other person's view point leads the way to success in a shorter period of time.

When Walt Disney was creating his Magic Kingdom, he had a unique way of requesting input from his staff.

He'd designate an entire wall to display all different stages of a project, and everyone in his organization was invited to post answers to the question " How can we improve this?"

Thus Disney gained access to the combined resources of a creative team, thus producing results commensurate the quality of the input received.

Ultimately, nothing matters

In one of Napoleon Hill's books "Grow Rich- With Peace Of Mind" he writes about the phrase: ultimately, nothing matters.

I have decided to post it for the benifit of anyone who reads it here as well as for my own recollection. This is a very powerful phrase. It emphasizes that everything matters in its time and place.

In this relentless fast paced world that we live in, sometimes it is good to remind us of the phrase : ultimately, nothing matters.

It can help to bring perspective to the activities that we are absorbed in, be it work, family or recreation. It makes you balance up your life and be a peaceful person. It makes you strong and focused to do what is possible and desireable without taking yourself too seriously.

Your success is yours to make or break, but it can never be bigger than mankind. Therefore, success requires you to contribute to the good of mankind beyond the riches that you accumulate for yourself.

When Napoleon Hill wrote "Grow Rich- With Peace Of Mind," he was in his eighties. In this book he wrote, " I know have given to the world more than I have taken from it, and this is a great source of contentment to me."

These are words of profound inspiration indeed.

Capital

In economics , the capital of a business refers to all of its assets: cash, inventories and investments. Capital is the value of assets of a firm minus the value of its liabilties. Capital is much more than just money.

The people who use the money to plan, run the business or build infrastructure have a greater responsinsibilty to make a profit and for common good. Money can be dangerous if evil minds use it for destructive purposes.

Great civilizations have been built by the power of capital . In the past, the emphasis was on physical capital such as building of railroads, ships for transportation and other means to run the economy. Companies were run on a top down approach, where workers took command from top manangement. This situation has changed with the emergence of the knowledge economy.

Knowledge will be the core commodity for the foreseeable future and is the factor that will decide how you earn, learn and have fun. This means you must learn how to learn and translate your knowledge into a marketable asset.

Knowledge now is an economic resource. It is personal capital or social capital that has to be shared and managed for the benifit of the idividual and the company. Trust is important between employer and employee and between employee to employee in order to realize the full benifit of what the knowledge brings to the business.

Social Capital is necessary to build strong instituitions that help advance society. Social capital helps foster closer cooperation between members of society by sharing values and sticking to common norms of behavior.

The internet and other tools of modern communication and easy transportation has made it possible for humanity to live in a global village interconnected to each other. We may not have arrived there fully yet, but the technology to make it happen does exist today.

Exciting prospects for fun and games, commerce and development and science and research will take society to greater glory if the human effort can be focused on achieving peace and harmony.

Simplicity

"That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest."
Henry David Thoreau wrote in 1856.

Thoreau was the unofficial head of the nineteenth century's "voluntary simplicity movement."
He is one of the most influential figures in American thought and literature.

Thoreau was an individualist, he championed the human spirit against materialism and social conformity. In his book "Walden" he gives an account of his solitary living, which he did for two years in a small cabin that he built on the shore of Walden Pond near Concord. He planted vegetables and did odd jobs to support himself.

People embrace simpicity for different reasons. Some do it out of economic necessity. They choose not to be in debt and cut down on luxuries and other personal habits that they can do without. Others do it because they refuse to follow the rat race. Their goal is to spend time on living instead of making a living.

Quotations

Among the quotatioins thatI looked up, here are some that stand out.

1-The true measure of a man's wealth is in the things he can afford not to buy.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
2-Even if you are on the right track, you won't get anywhere if you are standing still.
-Will Rogers
3-Rather than focusing on things and time, focus on preserving and enhancing relationships and accomplishing results.
-Stephen R. Covey
4-Happiness and success in life are not the result of what we have, but rather the result of how we live.
-Jim Rohn
5-Our greatest glory is not never falling but in rising evry time we fall.
-Confucius.
6-Everyone dies, but not everyone fully lives. Too many people are having a near life experience.
-G.B.Shaw
7-Don't let your education get in the way of your learning.
-Mark Twain
8-Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master.
-Albert Einstein
9-Prefer knowledge to wealth, for one is transitory, the other perpetual.
-Socrates
10-The world is my country, all mankind are my brethen, and to do good is my religion.
-Thomas Paine

Some Succeed, Others fail...' Why?

Successful persons know their goals, commit resources to achieve their goals and are flexible to make necessary changes in their direction when necessary. The failure, on the other hand, has no real purpose in life and believes success is the result of luck.

The successful person thinks before he speaks. He budgets time, income and experience. He takes a keen interst in people. He keeps abreast of the times and makes it an important responsibility to know what is going on, not only in his own business, profession or community but throughout the entire world.

The successful person keeps his mind and outlook on life positive at all times.

Contributing to Life

Whatever you do and however you live your life, you are contributing atleast a line to the manuscript of life. It therefore is upto you to contribute something that is positive or otherwise in the play of life. You get to do it only once. Every breath you take takes you closer to the end. Therefore the need to be at one's best is everybody's business.

Just as life filled in general with boundless opportunities, so is every living individual born with bountiful potential. Life is precious and not to be wasted on meaningless persuits. Each one of us has the potential to achieve something noteworthy. No one is without the ability to create meaning in life, however miserable the circumstances.

Life is about working, focusing and persevering in a manner that inrceases our chances of success and in so doing lessening our susceptiblity to failure. What counts is not how fast we can go, but how much pain and how long we endure before success is due. I believe that this will lead to the path to make our best contribution in this life.

Exercise your mind

Just as the physical body becomes strong through regular exercise, so does the mind require regular exercise to remain strong. The mind only grows through use, and atrophies through idleness.

Make sure that your personal fitness plan includes plenty of mental stimulation. One of the best ways to develop your imagination and visual skills is through reading.

Become a voracious reader.

How about thinking for a living!

Every human being needs to live his own life. You can help others to live their life by not interefering with them.

Is it possible to live a life without thinking? After reading the title and now this question may be enough to snap someone. Think again and they may say..You can't, after all we think. Dont' we? I agree and my answer is a resounding 'Yes' we do, but not nearly enough.

Now let's look at what I'm trying to say. Our education system makes us to go through a school system where our brains store in knowledge and we become qualified in the discipline that we choose. At this stage as young adults we start our career.

After you take up a job, you learn that you are not paid for what you know, but more particularly what you do with what you know. Now you begin to look at life with a serious eye.

The greatest tragedy of life is that the majority of people try and not succeed compared to the few who do succeed. You may have to do some "house cleaning" to live your best life. Clear your life path by throwing away the clutter that you may have collected over the years.

For most of us our life or 24 hours could be divided into three parts.
1) Eight hours a day for rest and sleep.
2) Eight hours a day for work or business or occupation.
3) The remaining eight hours is your free time.

Your free time is the only time you have, to divide among the things that can improve your life. What would you like to do during this free time.
Play, Read a book, Meet up with friends, Watch and reflect over the amazing beauty of nature, Tend to your Garden, Climb mountains, Do Nothing etc., etc. You choose how you'll allocate your time. But think and do it.

Most of us work to earn a living wage. What do we do the money we earn? Are we capable of saving and do we save anything? Saving is an aspect of character which reflects a person's sense of purpose and his ability to manage his affairs. The habit of saving does away with the habit of wastage. Think and save what you can for if you go into debt you'll not have peace of mind.

You have a right to happiness and this is is your life. If you are unhappy about your past, close the door upon that aspect of your past and devote your time to live in the present. Make sure your work and your money benifit someone besides yourself.

Do not hurt anyone in order that you may succeed. The world is full of people who have learned from their bad experience, some even having served prison time to ultimately accept that dishonesty never pays.

What is life?

The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said that life can only be understood backwards, but must live forward. This means several things, including to:

1-Treasure the good memories of past years while living out your life in the present.
2-Not allow the painful memories of the past to adversely influence your ability to handle the demands of today.
3-Resist the temptation to "correct" or "undo" whats done or undone in the past.
4-March courageously forward to do whatever you have to do to make your life and those important to you, meaningful and exciting.

In short, to live your life forward is to face your past without regret, to meet the present with confidence, and to prepare for the future without fear.

"To Dare is to lose one's foot momentalrily,
To not Dare is to lose oneself."
-Soren Kierkegaard.

Bill Gates-The Entrepreneur and his social contribution

As an entrepreneur Bill Gates changed the landscape of business. Guided by the belief that computer is a valuable tool, he has devoted his life to developing software for computers. His company Microsoft where he is chairman and Chief Software Architect, is a leader in the software industry.

In his book http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speedofthought/, Gates expalins how the Web together with emerging computer hardware, software and communications has changed the way business is done. E-commerce breaks the traditional barriers between manufacturers and consumers, while knowledge management and the tools it provides to operate the business has empowered workers away from a top down hierachy.

Bill Gates is considered the richest man in the world. His riches did not come from real estate or other precious commodities as has been the case of rich people previously. His riches came from the software he produced and from the stocks and shares he owned.

Philantropy has always been important to him. He and his wife has endowned a foundation with more than USD 27 billion to support activities in areas of global health and learning. There are those in the software industry especially those who compete with him who claim his business practices are monopolistic but he has certainly made an undeniable contribution to help and advance mankind.

You Can Succeed In Business Without Lying Or Stealing

Every day or nearly every day you read in the newspapers of cheating and stealing that happens all round the world. Short-sighted executives in the corporate world have tarnished their industry's reputation by greed and lack of moral responsibility.

They think that it is okay to cheat so long as they don't get caught. It's a cat and mouse game they play with regulatory authorities. The internet has made it more difficult because the crooks are invisible in cyberspace.

Corporate America was shocked and the general public was outraged when Enron and WorldCom, giants in their respective field of energy and telecommnications declared bankrupcy with their top executives involved in fraud.

Not too long ago, perhaps many will still remember the young financial trader who brought the oldest merchant bank in UK, The Barings Bank to its knees when he overtraded and lost USD 1.4 billion, twice the available trading capital at the bank.

It's time to return to the basics, to the values that made these institutions and their countries great. Look at Andrew Carnegie. The rags-to-riches Scottish immigrant to the United States became the king of the steel industry.

When he retired in 1902 he was the richest man in the world. Many persons of wealth have contributed to charity, but Andrew Carnegie was the first to state publicly that the rich have an obligation to give away their fortunes.

Carnegie set up more than 2500 free public libraries in US and Europe to make available to everyone a means of self-education.

Henry Ford produced an affordable car and paid high wages, helping to create a middle class society. Thomas Edison who despite having a hearing disability went to invent the light bulb and several other inventions.

We remember these eminent persons for their contributions to the industry and society. There are lessons we can draw from their distinguished careers, learn what motivated them, and what kind of values helped them make such contributions and leave a lasting legacy.

Capitalism and a free market provide us the best opportunity to realize the highest individual potential to improve the standard of living and contribute to society. But there has to be a moral and ethical guide line under which business deals should be done. This will help to bring cases of misuse in authority to justice and deprive them from wasting resources under their trust.

I shall look at Bill Gates, the current richest man in the world and his social contribution in my next posting.

Four Tactics For Inreasing Your Value Added

The following tactical moves can increase your value aded.

1. Increase your contribution
2. Cut your price
3. Assume some of the employer's or client's risk
4. Leverage yourself

Adding Value

To add value, be involved with the process that adds value. Many companies now say implicitly or explicitly, " You must either make something or sell something, or we can't hire you or keep you."

The true purpose of any company is to create products and services that increase the quality of life for all the customers they serve.

Companies make money by bringing a product or service to the market. They take inputs and value. Value is added through various processes, including product or service development, purchasing and production, marketing and sales, distribution and delivery and customer service. For example, narketing includes market research, pricing decisions, promotional efforts, and public relations among others. One of these could be your core skill to add value.

An almost surefire way to amximize your value added is to (a)be involved in a process that is essential to your employer and (b) do all you can do to improve the process continually. Involvement in a process without improving it makes you, at best, a caretaker.

If the process is essntial- like desktop publishing in a publishing company, for example- it must be efficient and effective as possible or you'll be replaced. If, on the other hand, the process is not essential, even if you improve it you are not adding much value.

This means that when you go to work for a company as an employee, you should quickly learn what the company sees as essential processes. These will often be the company's "core cpapabilities." They may center on technological processes or marketing or sales or distribution or whatever. Then you should determine the extent to which your core skills will help make those processes more efficient, more effective or both.

Business Logistics

People have carried out logistics activities for years. As far as humans can recall, goods that people wanted were not produced where they wanted to consume, or were not accessible when they needed to be consumed. Movement of goods was limited depending on the buyers needs, the type of transportation available, storage and perishable nature of commodoties.

Logistics is a system or a process with many components. It is a network of related activities that have a primary purpose to manage the flow of materials and personnel within the firm and through the supply chain. Warehousing of products takes place at the manufaturing plant for later sale. Warehousing and storage activities involve the management of the space to hold the inventory.

Logistics provides an integrated approach bringing fragmened activities together. Such integration helps and improves the flow of inventory by cutting the lag time between production and consumption. It makes use of the fastest mode of transportation whether by surface, sea or air.

In logistics comanies, the department responsible for transportation of the products can negotiate and get cheaper rates for both inbound and outbound transportation.This results logistics companies getting lower freighe rates because of the large quantities involved.

The central coordination of various logistics activities forces cost trade-offs to be made between and among logistics activities such as customer service, transportation, warehousing, inventory management, production planning, and processing.

The Web has now moved from a browser-based tool to an e- business enabler. Logistics is a huge segment of e-business. Its funtional activities are repeated many times through the logistics integrated supply chain. Raw materials that will make the finished product may not be located in the same place.

The consumers may not be in the same place where the product is turned out. This involves the logistics company to control and monitor activities in different locations and deliver the goods to the consumer though the supply chain network.

Virtual Reality

While no one single acceptable definition exists, Virtual Reality (VR) is generally meant as a computer generated space in which the user can freely move. VR is perhaps the most innovative human-computer interface that allows a computer generated simulation of an entire environment for the user.

With avdanced animation software, a grafic designer can build a virtual reality space, put in buildings, roads and people into it. He can simulate real life-like situations. It is possible to imagine a host of business applications for virtual rality. Imagine there is an accident on the road or a electrical power blackout in part of your city. The traffic police or the service engineer can look at a work screen and by putting a special goggle create a virtual environment. They can float over the city scan the area and immediately divert traffic, call for an ambulance for medical help or alert the nearest technician to fix up the electrical problem. This may sound like playing a video game but some such services may already be existing.

Weapons are a fascinating topic in military history. The might of the destructive power of weapons arsenal avialable now poses grave threats and deadly consequences.
Here, what I am talking about is playing games, cyber games. Anciet cities come to life, old conflicts are revived on a custom made multiplayer map. Opposing sides set up camp on either side of the map and go at each other using warfare tactics and strategy. Heros and villians emerge, the trail of blood and destruction almost spilling out of your computer. 3D animation, visual art and graphics have made all this possible.

Before you put army recruits through the rigors of physical training you can test their mental mettle. They can wear the VR mask, fiddle with the joystick and experice the power of the military might from rifles, pistols, cluster bombs, tanks, cruise missiles, aircarft carriers, nuclear and biological warfare all in just one sitting. This is amazing.

Virtual Reality has broght thrilling new experience to entertainment, exciting prospects to further education and advaces in medical technology to improve and prolong a higher quality of life. Today, technology allows you to experience life even before you are born. We now have virtual doctors, virtual universities, virtual pets and even virtual graveyards.

There are today 3D Virtual Malls in cyberspace designed to resemble modern shopping malls. You can do your shopping by the click of your mouse. You can buy your cloths or order your coat. You can determine the size, cutting, colour and texture of the material and do a fit on before you actually make the online payment. Every aspect of our life is affected and improved by what these technologies have provided to us.

What Kind Of Money Game?

Money is for saving. Money is for spending. Money is for loving. Money is for hating. Take your pick. Money moves the world. George Bernard Shaw called it " the most important thing in the world." Some social commentators say we live in a mad world where for money we sell our soul.
Indeed, these are strong words that arouse strong passions.

Money which itself essentially has no value , exerts more power over human lives than any other single commodity. It destroys marriages and family. Money motivates fraud, robbery and kidnappings and you read about such criminal acts in the newspapers on a daily basis. Organized crime has become a big industry. Nations and their intelligent services are preoccupied to rein in the criminals, bring them to justice and put them away. You could ask, how come this situation? After all we can't live without money in the modern world. Money brings out the best and the worst of human personality.

Glyn Davis, emeritus professor of economics at the University of Wales, in his essay "Origins Of Money And Of Banking" takes you through what money is, its functions and much more. In the earlier times, money of different forms and kind was used. Amber, cowries, leather, cows, yarns and several other items were exchanged for the value of goods and services. Thus money became anything that is widely used for making payments and accounting for debts and credits.

The power of this money has been used to build and destroy, to create empires, to wage war, to save lives and to kill. Money is used to go the moon , conduct scientific research to improve life for millions and it also provides the means for mass destruction.

The course of history, for better or worse is continually changed by the power of money. People have fought for economic reasons as much as they as have done for ideological reasons. Thus money is a controlling factor in the political stability of the world.

At the macro econoimc level and in the global context, you can now imagine what money can do. It affects peoples lives and determines the quality of their life. Going by the rumblings of history, we know that motivated by greed the alchemists tried to convert cheaper metals such as iron into gold.

With the internet and in the age of connectivity, the electronic version of money, the E-money has emerged. What games that can now be played will not be limited to items and physical boundaries but to the cyberspace, the development of which is still in the infant stage.

The Social Responsibility of Business Organizations

Do business organizations have social responsibility? And what is a corporate social responsibility? A number of articles in the online encyclopedia wikipedia on corporate social resposibility provide some very useful information. These are age old questions but with the advent of globalization this whole concept of corporate social responsibility is now receiving greater attention.

Milton Freidman, the US Economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1976 believes that a business has only one responsibility: economic performance. In other words, a business must show a profit and keep increasing its profits. Milton who propagated this concept in 1970 still maintains his position as you can read from interview in the BusinessWeek online.

It is futile to argue that business has no other responsibility except to increase profits for shareholders. If a business doesn't show a profit atleast equal to its cost of capital, it is wasting resources and shoud not be in such business. A company cannot ignore the other social responsibilities because it does exercise social power and it is operating in a social envioronment.

A business organization can decide whom to hire, whom to fire and whom to promote. It can establish rules for staff discipline, it can set prices for goods and services that it offers to consumers. The business organization is entrusted with social power to carry out such duties. It is therefore essential that power be balanced with responsibilty to avoid misuse and tyranny.
Thus every organization has to take full responsibilty for its impact on employees, the environment, customers and whoever and whatever it interacts.

In the Global Economic Forum held in Davos this year, a case for corporate social responsibilty was put up by the International Chairman of KPMG, highlighting the income disparities in the emerging economies particularly in India and China. There is a major challenge to distribute the wealth and the address issues of poverty and continue on a path of sustainable development.

Money Games, Gambits and Pastimes

On a previous posting I posed a question about what money means to us and I hope we can find some answers to that.

One of the early money games that I and many others would have played is "the Monoploy." You throw a dice, count your moves, get your $ 200 as you pass go, buy property and charge rent to anyone you lands there.

In real life, the impact of building your wealth and spending it brings out strong and complex emotions. To some people money means security and it is deposited into a bank account. To others it may mean the freedom to spend on shopping and buying other luxuries.

Now imagine a husband and wife at both ends of the spectrum. The anxiety of the husband over his wife's spending is understandable. But the wife always feels unfulfilled if she is unable to spend her money. This constant balancing struggle spills over into conflict, each side accusing the other of irresponsibilty and lack of understanding.

Paradoxically, such attitudes towards money are found in every lifestyle and every profession or business. Ideally, the amount money one spends in a month should be related to one's income. However, some people live beyond their means, whether they have little money or a lot. On the other hand, there are other people who refuse to spend much money regardless of their finacial circumstances.

There are some people who say that " Money is the root of all evil." They may even believe that. There others who rant and and rave that "The Almighty Dollar" has ruined their life in the stock market. Still others scorn and swear that many a businessman has robbed them through treachery and unfair practices.

Money is one of the most powerful motivators of human behavior. Love follows a close second or neck and neck to money as some experts have observed. People rob and kill for money. Others judiously toil their whole life for it. Some see money as a status symbol, others collect it for security. However it may be seen, it has got gigantic power.

Those of you who have seen the epic film "The GodFather"winner of 3 Oscars know how money drives people to violence and societal corruption of everything good that is necessary for a harmonious living. Although not portrayed in such glorious and gruesome manner, the world still has lesser known godfathers playing similar games on unsuspecting victims.

What we know from all this is that money can be used to fulfill hidden ajendas. To find out the magical answer from the ecomomic sector on how best money should be used, let us turn our attention to " The Social Responsibilty Of Business Organizations" and see what we find there. On this, I shall write my next piece.

Zest Games

After a few weeks of working my son Hazyl has today launched his games news site; Zest Games.

My information on games is very limited but I do know that he is more than a bit crazy over them. It is my desire to understand how someone can make a living by making and playing games. Now you'll know why you wouldn't hold me in contempt over this glorious industry that holds many of you spell bound. As I go along I'll improve albeit a slow learner.

Here's the link to: zestgames.com/. Do look up if it interests you.

Create more money in your life

Whatever your current level of income, it can always be better. Begin with an understanding of your present situation. Is your present income sufficient to pay for your lifestyle? Are you able to save any money?

Also look to the future? Find out about your company's compensation plans and whether you are being adequately paid. You owe it to yourself to improve in whatever you do. Hence learn new skills. Lay-offs are possible and you could become one. As a forward thinking person, you can meet any challenge and seize every opportunity to create more money in your life.

Every time you save money that you earn is to create money in your life. Every opportunity you take to acquire appropriate skills and add value to existing business or innovate new ways to do or improve a business, you create more money in your life.

Money: Why most people don't get rich

Millions of people apparently worship money. Many dream about having millions of dollars and fantasize about the things they would do with it. It is probably safe to say that money is a preoccupation to them.

So why do most people not get rich in terms of having more money? The primary reason is despite their longing, money is not worth what it would take to get it. This is a profound statement perhaps likely to be fiercely debated. Before we reach that level, let us ask: What really is money?

Money is described as a medium of exchange for goods, services and the necessities of life. Is this a fair definition? To address this question we need to understand what money means to us. And for this, each one of us should determine the purpose of money in our life.

To some, it may mean a mortgage-free home. For others it is necessary for economic reasons, social life or spiritual matters. History has shown us that people who statred with little or no money have reached the top. For such people, money is very important, perhaps the highest priority in their life is to accumulate money.

Program Yourself For Success

Here's a thought that flashed my mind.
We are born into different circumstances in life. Despite formidable obstacles, some of us rise up to succeed while others with everything favourable, live in misery.

One answer for this is that you are the way you are because of what is programmed into your subconscious mind; your super computer that controls your emotions. This computer beats your heart and directs every action of your body.

Some of the emotional decisions it makes reflect what may have happened in your chilhood; for example, we learned to feel guilty as children when our parents punished us for doing things that they didn't approve. Thus, though we were not born with guilt, we were programmed to it at an early age.

In order to succeed in life, we have to get rid of such self-defating feelings. Get down to your inner computer. If you don't like how you feel, change the output and reprogram by repeatedly saying that you can succeed and you deserve better.

Your subconscious will finally accept the positive suggestion and emotionalize it replacing the negative feelings. This is is how you can progran yourself for success.

How you could lose weight

Whether you are 10 pounds or 100 pounds overweight, you've probably tried taking off excess weight by dieting. That is how most people try to lose weight.

Dieters go after bulging stomachs and flabby arms instead of the insecurities or the frustrations that causes them to eat too much.

Your body is the product of your life and you need a life change, not just a body change. Nothing else will work for a permanent change. You've got a choice.

If you want to stay fit, healthy and look good, be active in order to burn the excess calories and fat that you take in.

Obesity can come about either because of unhealthy eating habits, or a sedentary lifestyle or a combination of both.

Stop kidding and take responsibility for your body and your life. If you remain fat you will have physical limitations and problems of health.

Find a compelling reason whether it is to physically look good, or run a marathon race, or reduce the risk of a heart attack and stay in your best shape.

That would be the best body you deserve to live your best life.

A useful link: http://www.weightwatchers.com/index.aspx

Productivity

Productivity means the balance between all factors of production that will give the greatest output for the smallest effort. This is quite different from productivity per worker or per hour of work.

The greatest opportunities for increasing productivity are to be found in knowledge work especially in mangement.

In the pre-industrial thinking, accountants called productive labor as mannual workers tending machines, who are actually the least productive labor. What they call non-productive labor are the people who contribute to production without tending to a machine.

The concept of productivity should consider together all the eforts that go into output and express them in relation to their result, rather than assuming that labor is the only productive effort. Effort should not be confined to the activities measureable as visible and direct costs.

Two factors that stand out but are never visible are:

1.Knowledge. This is the most productive and expensive resource.
2.Time. Time is man's most perishable resource. There is nothing less productive than idle time of expensive equipment or wasted time of highly paid and able people.

The purpose of business objectives

The basic definition of the business and its purpose and mission have to be translated into business objectives. Otherwise, they may remain good intentions which may never become achievement.

Objectives must be derived from " what our business is, what it will be and what it should be." They are not abstractions. They are the action commitments through which the action of the business is to be carried out and the standards against which the performance is to be measured.

Objectives are the fundamental strategy of a business. Obectives must be operational. They must be capable of being converted into specific targets. They must become the basis as well as the motivation for work and achievement.

Efficiency and Effectiveness

Economists tell us that efficiency is doing better what is already being done. It means focus on costs and get a superior job done. But even the most efficient business cannot survive, let alone succeed, if it is doing the wrong things, that is it lacks effectiveness.

Effectiveness is the foundation for success. It focuses on opportunities to produce revenue, to create markets and to change the economic characteristics of existing products and markets.

Efficiency is a minimum condition for survival after success has been achieved. Efficiency is concerned with doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.

Health workout and wealth workout

Many of us do a health workout for various reasons. A sedentary life style may have led to obesity and excess fat needs to be reduced or the joy of outdoor activities makes you do the workout. Thus many people do physical workouts.

A wealth workout requires us to do more than what we do for the health workout. Additionally, we have to engage our brain and spring it to action. We have to find out about the state of our financial fitness. Several questions will need to be addressed. How much savings do I need? What if I'm laid off? When can I retire? How will my bills get paid if I'm disabled? and many more.

Physical fitness can reduce your weight and build up your muscles. Financial fitness can reduce your expenses and build your wealth. So, do both types of workouts.